Eyes of Amber —
Joan D. Vinge

I
hope to review all of the essential short story, novelette, and
novella collections published by Joan D. Vinge. You may ask what
subset of existing Vinge collections are on that list; the answer
would be “all three of them.” It would be easier if such a book
as The
Complete Collected Short Works of Joan D. Vinge
were to exist … but it does not. Alas.

I
will begin with 1979’s Eyes
of Amber and Other Stories,
which contains, not only the novelette Eyes
of Amber,
but several other stories. As advertised.

The Summer Queen —
Joan D. Vinge
Snow Queen Cycle, book 3

As
has been previously established,
I am very fond of Joan D. Vinge’s The
Snow Queen.
I was delighted to hear that Tor Books is bringing it back into
print, after a lapse of fifteen years1. Granted, it is being
republished without the wonderful original Leo and Diane Dillon cover,

but this Michael Whelan kid Tor tapped to provide the new cover

seems like he has potential.

What
better way to celebrate the re-release of a book I like than with a
shiny new review!

Alas,
unaware that The
Snow Queen
was going to be re-released this year, I reviewed the novel in
question last year.

So
what you’re actually going to get today is a review of one of the two
sequels, 1991’s The
Summer Queen,
plus! extra! bonus! exhortations to buy both The
Snow Queen and
The Summer Queen.

The
Hegemony has temporarily retreated from Tiamat, forced to abandon the
only source of the Water
of Life,
the elixir which reverses aging. Tiamat’s twin suns are again nearing
the black hole around which they orbit and the hyperspace route to
Tiamat is unstable and unsafe. The Hegemony (the miniscule successor
to a fallen galactic Empire) is forced to leave Tiamat to its own
devices for the next century. Time enough for Tiamat’s Summer Queen,
Moon Dawntreader, to encourage the two cultures of her world to
modernize. If she succeeds, Tiamat will no longer be defenseless in
the face of superior technology.

Or
at least that was Moon’s plan. She’d have gotten away with it too, if
not for that interfering cop, BZ Gundhalinu.

Heaven Chronicles —
Joan D. Vinge
Heaven Chronicles

Whereas Vinge’s Psion was written in Andre Norton mode, and her Snow Queen was a Space Opera retelling of a fairy tale, Heaven Chronicles contains three works — a novel and two novellas that have been merged into one longer novella — that are all pure, hard SF. However, this volume contains features such as plot and characters not normally (well, not necessarily) found within slide-ruleSF. The result is a solid collection of stories I would strongly recommend you purchase if only any of them were actually in print.

The Snow Queen —
Joan D. Vinge
Snow Queen Cycle, book 1

Due to injuries and poor health, Joan D. Vinge has not been prolific as of late; her most recent non-tie-in novel was 2000’s Tangled Up in Blue. In the 1970s her body of work was not so large as some but that series of novellas was enough to establish Vinge as an author of note. 1980’s The Snow Queen was only her second novel, after 1978’s Outcasts of Heaven’s Belt and it earned Vinge the 1981 Hugo for Best Novel. For good reason.

Psion —
Joan D. Vinge
Cat, book 1

This is the book that made me ask on Facebook if it makes sense to talk about an Andre Norton lineage of SF writers. In many ways it’s what you might get if Norton had been a better writer. In others, it’s what you might get if the X-Men used a draft to gain recruits.